Genesis 20:16, commentary and pictures

Abraham spoke these words during his sojourn among the Philistines, where Abimelech knew the true God and the nation held a high regard for morality. This was the second time Abraham called Sarah his sister, a deception born of distrust and lack of trusting faith in God's protecting care. It shows that even one known for faith could act from unbelief, and that his faith was not yet perfect though he had gone out at God's command without questioning. The verse belongs to Genesis 12 to 26, the account of God's providential dealings, care and interest with Abraham and his family as the chosen progenitor of the promised Seed, tracing Abraham's growth in faith. It is part of the story of God's dealing with the Seed and the enemy's attempts to thwart His plan, in a book that is a history of beginnings where God's law was in force and gospel promises and prophecies to His chosen shine, whose great facts of Creation, the Fall, the Seed, and the Deluge run through the whole Bible.

Abimelech understood the prohibition against adultery and God directly instructed him about it. Lying was already condemned before the law was given at Sinai, and this passage is evidence that God's command against lying was already recognized. Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham and gave a thousand pieces of silver, sending Abraham's household on its journey with gifts and goodwill as part of God's temporal blessing on Abraham's large household. The payment was a public vindication of Sarah, and the phrase covering of the eyes refers to a sign that cleared her before those with her and everyone else.

The covering presents an emblem of conjugal chastity, in which a woman's covered head signified her modesty and fidelity in relation to her husband. Abimelech reproved Sarah in connection with that wrong, and the payment was a rebuke concerning what had happened. Abimelech sternly rebuked Abraham over his conduct concerning Sarah, and God used Abimelech to correct Abraham.